Lil Squeaky

Apollo Allen Ailus, known professionally by his stage name Lil Squeaky, is a Finnish-American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer. He initially gained notoriety for his extensive discography on his original SoundCloud account, before signing to Flex Entertainment. He is best known for singles such as "MANNY", "Oolin", "Menace," "Menace 2," and the song "Nipples," which peaked at number seven on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. He became an executive in the label on September 24, 2020. He is the older brother of fellow Flex Entertainment artist .jitters.

Early Life
Apollo Allen Ailus was born on December 16, 2002, in Helsinki, Finland, as the second child of four. His mother is from Bangladesh, and was adopted by a wealthy Finnish couple at the age of seven. His father is a pure-blooded Finnish man. In May 2004, Ailus and his family moved to the US state of Maryland, before relocating to Falls Church, Virginia. They later moved to Fairfax, Virginia in 2006, and finally to Alexandria, Virginia in 2017. He has two younger brothers and one older sister. One of his brothers is fellow rapper and producer .jitters.

Career
Lil Squeaky released his first single, “Fake Lil Squeaky,” in May 2018, a diss track towards fellow Virginia rapper Lil Crisp. He released several more singles in late spring and early summer 2018 on SoundCloud, and gained a following over the summer. He released his debut mixtape Squeakerton, The Chronicle on September 21, 2018. Just a few weeks later in October he released the EP Jews in the Ghetto, vol. 1. Then on November 3, 2018, he released the mixtape Deadass: Ricky’s Last Stand. The song “MANNY” from this mixtape became popular nearly two years later in July 2020 after being posted on the Reddit page Cringetopia. Shortly after the Deadass mixtape was released, the Lil Squeaky character “died.”  This is because Ailus didn’t feel any motivation to make music, so he killed off the character of Lil Squeaky. However, at the end of the year, he decided to revive the character and continue making music.

On February 10, 2019, Squeaky released his most recent mixtape Jews in the Ghetto, vol. 2.  Later that month he released the double-single Spooky Hours, which featured the two lead singles for his upcoming debut album. His first studio album, Professional Murderer, was released on April 9, 2019, and was intended to be a very loud, experimental album. The album garnered mixed reviews, with many listeners enjoying the album’s absurdity and Squeaky’s brand of satire, while others criticized how distorted and abrasive the album’s sound was. Squeaky went on hiatus after this, and released two singles in May 2019 under the moniker XXX Biggie T. The Soundcloud account he used for those songs would later become his second account for his Lil Squeaky music.

Squeaky was signed to Flex Entertainment on October 31, 2019, and released his first single under the label, “Menace,” featuring Lil Mosquito Disease and Big Lil, in November. Squeaky gained a much greater following after releasing the song, and it peaked at number 51 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100, long after its initial release and peak popularity. Squeaky’s follow-up single “Menace 2,” featuring Lil Mosquito Disease, Big Lil, and beetlebat, was released late in November, and peaked at number 67. "Menace 2" became Squeaky's first song to reach 1,000 plays on Spotify.

In 2020, Squeaky’s first release was the single “Ok,” and shortly after announced that he was working on his second studio album Menace 2 Society. The album was intended to be a "meme rap version of Travis Scott's Rodeo album." However, he would later announce that the entire album was scrapped and he would instead attempt to make an album that people would listen to unironically in their free time while still including lyrics that could make people laugh. He does plan on eventually releasing the scrapped songs. To entertain fans before he album would be released, he released two projects: a live compilation album, Squeaky Sings the Classics, released on April 10 on SoundCloud and YouTube, and the EP Squeaky 4 President, released on SoundCloud and YouTube on April 17 and onto streaming services on April 31. The EP was met with generally positive reviews, with many listeners finding the songs catchy, though others disliked the poor mastering and the very questionable lyrics. The EP spawned Squeaky’s first top ten hit, “Nipples,” which peaked at number 7 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. Thanks to this EP and especially the success of "Nipples," Squeaky gained a larger and more dedicated following.

Squeaky became an administrator for Flex Entertainment on June 29, 2020, after administrator Yung Garfield left the label; however, Garfield re-signed to the label on July 3 and would become an administrator again alongside Squeaky.

Squeaky announced in June that he changed the title of his second studio album to God Mode.  The album’s lead single “Rollercoaster” was released on July 3, 2020 and peaked at number 28 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. On that same day, Squeaky appeared on three songs on the Flex Gang, vol. 2 compilation album: His own songs, “Moonshine” featuring Lil Toy Yoda and Lil Joof, and “Nipples 2” featuring Big Baller B, Lil Mosquito Disease, Lil Toy Yoda, Lil Joof, and Yung Lambo; and as a featured artist on Yung Garfield’s song “New Beans” featuring Lil Squeaky and John. On the Hot 100, Moonshine peaked at number 24 and New Beans at 27.

Squeaky released his second studio album God Mode on July 24, 2020. The album was met with very positive reviews, becoming the highest rated Flex Entertainment album on the album reviewing site AlbumOfTheYear. Many listeners and critics praised the more polished sound and improved mixing and mastering, as well as Squeaky's infectious flows and vocal performances and often funny lyrics. Some critics disliked some of the lyrics and mixing, but the majority of listeners gave the album very positive feedback.

Squeaky has worked on other Flex artists' albums as well, starting with his role as "creative director" of Yung Garfield's debut album BOMBOCLAAT. Squeaky helped out a lot with samples and telling Garfield what to do for a certain song's production or lyrical topic. He also taught Garfield how to "produce in Audacity," a style of production that Garfield has stuck to ever since and has brought him great success. In addition, Squeaky was the sound engineer for Yung Lambo's debut album Lambo Season. He was also featured on multiple songs on each of these albums.

Squeaky's next project will be a mixtape titled Shattered Dreams. This project will feature Lil Squeaky making indie pop songs as opposed to his usual hip-hop music. The mixtape is expected to be released in early November. His next studio album, currently titled FAIR LAKES PLAZA, is expected to release in early 2021. Squeaky is also a member of the collective Flood Gang, consisting of himself, Depp Gibbs, .jitters, Lil Pinecone, sammy the fish, Yung Lambo, Hood Guy, and LVN Filo.  As an administrator, he has signed numerous artists to the label, including Ivan Knight and the Imaginary Friends, smntx, Ya Boy Payden, Lil Pinecone, and John.

Trivia

 * Lil Squeaky's verse on his song "XEXE" is potentially the fastest verse ever rapped by a Flex Entertainment artist.
 * Many of Squeaky's older songs on Soundcloud have been recently gaining traction and have become sleeper hits. Some notable examples are "MANNY", "Oolin", "XEXE", "Arms Race", "Cclapped" and most notably "b r o k e n h e a r t e d" which even received a remix in September 2020 with popular Flex Entertainment artist Big Baller B.
 * His older SoundCloud projects have also gained traction in recent months, most notably "Professional Murderer" and "SQUEAKERTON: The Chronicle".
 * He currently has the most XP in the Flex Entertainment Discord Server.
 * He is the only Flex Entertainment member to have released a live album.

Albums

 * Professional Murderer  (2019)
 * God Mode (2020)
 * FAIR LAKES PLAZA (2021)

Mixtapes

 * Squeakerton: The Chronicle (2018)
 * Deadass: Ricky's Last Stand (2018)
 * Jews in the Ghetto, Vol. 2 (2019)
 * Shattered Dreams (2020)

EPs

 * Jews in the Ghetto, Vol. 1 (2018)
 * SPOOKY HOURS (2019)
 * Squeaky 4 President (2020)

Live Albums

 * Squeaky Sings the Classics (2020)